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TRENDING:

Conrad: Passing extenders will be a struggle

The bill costs roughly $200 billion and extends measures like unemployment insurance as well as tax breaks benefiting businesses and individuals.

A large portion of the package is not offset because many of its measures are considered to be emergency spending. Under pay-as-you-go rules, such provisions do not require offsets.

One spending measure drawing considerable fire for being labeled an emergency is the "doc fix," which delays a cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The measure adds approximately $65 billion to the deficit.

"I understand absolutely the need now to extend unemployment, to do COBRA [health insurance], and those to me are emergencies," Conrad said. "But when we start doing other things, that concerns me."